


Everywhere Cats

by Engineer104



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Canon Compliant, Fluff, Fluff and Crack, Gen, Hijinks & Shenanigans, Verges on crack, Voltron Lions as Cats, but a little serious??, i think
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-24
Updated: 2018-02-24
Packaged: 2019-03-23 07:48:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,363
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13783020
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Engineer104/pseuds/Engineer104
Summary: A mysterious mishap transforms the Lions of Voltron into...cats, who are more troublesome for their Paladins than for Zarkon's Empire





	Everywhere Cats

**Author's Note:**

> This is all [hailqiqi's](http://hailqiqi.tumblr.com/) and [blue-hawkeye's](http://blue-hawkeye.tumblr.com/) fault. Also, it was late and i should not be held accountable for the promises I make in the very early hours of the morning
> 
> Regardless, this fic was intended to be something short and sweet and crack and a change of pace for me, but it got a little longer than I expected and took a turn for the serious about three-quarters of the way through, so...enjoy??

Hunk settled his helmet onto his head as he walked into the Yellow Lion’s hangar, feeling wonderfully light at the prospect of this mission. Coran had promised him that the Akkians gave gifts of food freely after formal meetings, and Allura admitted, with a hint of distaste, that _spices_ heavily flavored their cuisine.

(Considering what Coran tried to feed the Paladins regularly, Hunk couldn’t bring himself to be surprised by Allura’s dislike of spices.)

But the sight of an empty hangar brought Hunk up short.

“Uh…Yellow?” Hunk tried, heart plummeting. He frowned, uncertain and confused; had Pidge installed a cloaking device on the Yellow Lion without his permission?

Unless someone _stole_ his Lion, which, though not impossible, was _very_ improbable if Yellow safely slept in his hangar.

Yet…there was _no Lion_.

“Oh, no,” Hunk said. He activated his helmet’s comm link to the bridge and asked, “Uh, Coran, are you there?”

A prickle of static, then Coran’s voice said, “Yes, Number Two. Are you on your way to Akk yet?”

“Well, you know, I _would_ be,” Hunk admitted, “But the Yellow Lion isn’t in his hangar.”

“He’s…what?” Coran said. “Are you sure?”

Hunk waved at the interior of the hangar, as if Coran was there to see, and grumbled, “Unless Pidge and Lance decided to prank me by hiding my Lion…yes, I’m _sure_.”

“That’s…interesting,” Coran said. “Perhaps you misplaced him.”

“Yeah, no, I did not misplace several metric tonnes of giant metal space cat, Coran,” Hunk retorted.

“What’s a metric tonne?” Coran asked.

“A thousand kilograms,” Hunk told him, but before Coran could ask him to explain what a kilogram was, he added, “Look, has the hangar door been opened since the last time we went out?”

“No, no it has not." 

While Coran mused on why the Yellow Lion would be missing - and Hunk’s thoughts grew more and more chaotic by the tic - he wandered towards where Yellow usually crouched in wait. He mentally probed their bond, but nothing about _that_ was off. No, Yellow’s usual fond warmth - the calm he exuded - was still there without a hint of alarm to it.

Hunk frowned at a patch of yellow lying on the floor, right where his Lion _should_ be sitting, but as he strode closer, his eyes widened.

It was a cat, curled into a tight ball with a bushy yellow tail covering its nose. And as Hunk approached, the cat picked its head up, rich orange eyes opening and landing on him. It _mrrowed_ , voice surprisingly deep, and blinked at him in…welcome.

“Coran,” Hunk said, “I think I found the Yellow Lion.”

“Oh, good!” Coran said. “ _Did_ Number Five prank you, as you said?”

“No,” Hunk said, but after reconsidering he amended, “At least, I don’t think so.” He crouched in front of the cat, cautiously extending a hand towards it, and when it pushed its head into the palm of his hand, a purr _vibrating_ into his skin, Hunk knew for sure.

“What the quiznak happened?”

* * *

If Hunk hadn’t warned them, Pidge wouldn’t have been prepared for the mess on her desk. As it was, she slumped at the sight, already anticipating having to tidy up since random objects - everything from bundles of copper wiring to pens to circuit boards - had been knocked to the floor. 

Pidge bent over to pick up a clump of tangled wire, eye twitching as her gaze roved around the hangar, searching for the culprit. “Green!” she called. She could _sense_ that her Lion - her _cat_ now, apparently - was close by without pinpointing her precise location, and a prickle on the back of her neck alerted her a tic before claws scraped at the back of her legs.

“Hey!” Pidge said, turning around and lunging for the cat. But Green pulled away easily, eyes wide and pupils so big only a sliver of bright green iris showed.

Pidge crossed her arms as she faced down the cat that replaced the Green Lion. “Did you _really_ have to do this?” she asked her, showing her the mess of wire she held. “You’re supposed to be _curious_ , not _mischievous_.”

Green’s jaws parted, a hint of fangs showing. Her fur was a blinding, pristine white, and if not for the strange intelligent glint in her eyes as she appraised her Paladin, Pidge might’ve mistaken her for a regular domesticated cat from Earth.

Pidge smirked. “I bet Lance is going to lose it when I tell him my Lion’s prettier than his.”

Green meowed, and for a tic Pidge thought that she would let her catch her, but as soon as she reached out for the cat, she jumped away from her grasping hands and darted away to slip underneath her desk.

“Well, this isn’t weird at all,” Pidge grumbled. She got on her hands and knees and peeked under the desk, Green’s reflecting eyes making her easy to locate. “How do I get you out…”

* * *

The last thing Lance expected when he opened his closet was for his sack of yarn to fall onto his head from the highest shelf. “Ow!” he yelled, rubbing his head - _why was it so heavy?_ \- when it landed on the floor with a _thud_. 

Lance stared down at it, watching it _writhe_ with wide eyes. Suspicious that the yarn he’d spun from Arusian wool had come alive, he nudged the sack with his toes.

The sack fell still.

“Okay, still not the weirdest thing that’s happened since we got here,” Lance said. He crouched down to gather up the yarn that had spilled out onto his bedroom floor, but before he could reach for a clump of navy thread, a paw emerged from the sack and batted at his hand.

Lance jumped back, startled. “What the quiznak?” he said.

The paw chased him, a claw snagging in his jacket sleeve, but when Lance tried to tug his arm away, a whole _cat_ followed.

Lance held his arm up, watching - utterly _bewildered_ \- a small cat with thick brown fur cling to his sleeve. It growled, a deep noise deep in its throat, tail thrashing beneath it as it wrenched Lance’s arm.

“Would you _chill_?” Lance said, lowering his arm again so that the cat could fall to the floor.

It did, but as soon as Lance stood upright again, the cat jumped at his leg and latched onto him, claws digging through the fabric and pricking his skin. “Hey!” he shrieked. “These are my favorite pants!”

But the cat clung, resisting Lance’s efforts to shake it off, and giving up, he sat on his bed, tentatively reaching towards the cat to pet it.

The cat batted at his hand, and he scowled at it. “So you want me, but you _don’t_ want me?” he demanded. “Is that how it is?”

It chirped at him, sounding bird-like, and Lance crossed his arms as he considered where the _quiznak_ it could’ve come from. But before he could think too hard, a firm knock sounded from the door.

Lance stood and walked over, carefully since the cat still held tight to his leg, as the door slid open. Hunk was on the other side, with…another cat clutched in his arms.

“We have…a problem,” Hunk told him.

Hunk’s cat blinked orange eyes up at Lance before closing them again, purring powerfully enough that its whiskers quivered with the force. It rubbed its head against Hunk’s chest, and Lance raised an eyebrow at it.

“Did Allura adopt a bunch of cats without telling us?” Lance asked. “I mean, she has mice, so I’m not sure why she _would_ …”

“Well,” Hunk said, but his eyes traveled down to the cat attached to his leg. “Oh, so Red found you.”

Lance blinked and stared at him. “Wait, what?”

* * *

After Hunk informed them what happened to the Yellow Lion, Allura decided to investigate for herself, all but sprinting to the Blue Lion’s hangar, the mice barely keeping pace with her before she left them behind. She wasn’t sure, exactly, what a _cat_ was, but with Hunk’s explanation she gathered that it was a small Lion of sorts. 

Her heart still plummeted when she found the Blue Lion’s hangar empty, stomach filling with dread as she searched for the Lion herself. She could still feel her in the back of her mind, always present whenever she sought her, but the very _idea_ of the Lions turning into small, nonthreatening animals had her insides twisting into anxious knots as she considered how they’d fight their next battle.

There was only so much the Castle could do alone, after all.

“All right,” Allura spoke to the hangar, “where are you, Blue?” She strode around the room, searching every nook and cranny for a sign of the Lion, until finally something small, gray, and four-legged emerged from behind an unaligned wall panel.

The creature walked straight up to Allura and rubbed itself against her leg, its body vibrating pleasantly as it emitted a quiet, high-pitched sound. It was a _happy_ sound, Allura guessed from the _feeling_ she sensed along the bond, and she couldn’t help smiling as she crouched down to the creature’s level.

“Are you the Blue Lion?” Allura asked.

The thing clicked its jaws, nudging its head into Allura’s chin, and she stroked her head, grinning just a bit wider at the touch of soft fur in her hand. Blue eyes peered up at her, and when Allura gathered the creature into her arms, she nestled in, face buried in her armpit with no sign of discomfort from her.

“Hmm, perhaps we need to confine you until we find a way to fix this,” she mused aloud to Blue.

Blue only mewled, but as Allura left the hangar, the mice finally caught up to her.

“Oh, have you seen this?” she asked them, shifting her arms so that Blue and the mice could regard each other.

It turned out to be a mistake, for Blue squirmed, leaping out of Allura’s arms to chase after the mice, which quickly turned tail and fled.

Allura watched them go, sighing and wondering why she’d thought that a small Lion would be any less predatory than a big one.

* * *

An unfamiliar weight sat on Shiro’s chest when he woke from a nap he hadn’t meant to take. His heartbeat spiked, eyes shooting open in panic, but when his gaze fell on something _furry_ and _feline_ , he smiled and calmed down, eyes slipping closed again. 

_Wait._

Shiro cautiously lifted his head and stared at the black cat sitting on his chest. It turned its head, regarding him with intelligent violet eyes, and for a tic he couldn’t breathe.

“Black?” he said.

The cat blinked slowly at him, lowering its head and curling into a tighter ball. Shiro wondered if it intended to keep him here by refusing to stand, and for now he was content like this - if confused by the cat’s presence - and stroked the cat’s long, silky fur.

He grinned, feeling the texture even with his cybernetic hand, when Black’s deep purr vibrated into his chest. The cat’s paws settled right over his heart, and Shiro was calm for the first time in what seemed years.

At least until the door to the lounge slid open, Lance and Hunk disrupting his serenity with their chatter.

“…in my _closet_!” Lance was saying, and probably gesturing wildly. “He messed up my yarn, and now it’s going to take me a long time to untangle everything.”

“Yellow hasn’t done anything yet,” Hunk said. “I found him sleeping in his usual place, actually.”

A cat meowed, and Shiro frowned. Was Black then not the only Lion that had turned into…a house cat?

“What’s going on?” Shiro asked.

“Oh, Shiro!” Lance said, peeking over the back of the sofa at him with a grin. “We didn’t see you there.”

Shiro rubbed his face with his flesh hand, the cybernetic one still buried in Black’s long fur. “Clearly,” he said, careful to keep his tone level.

“Did we wake you?” Hunk wondered with a furrowed brow as he appeared beside Lance, a big orange cat settled in his arms.

“I was already awake,” Shiro said. He nudged Black aside, glad when it understood him immediately and jumped off his chest, and sat up. “What happened to the Lions?”

“Well, they…shrunk a bit,” Hunk said.

“They shrunk _a lot_ ,” Lance amended.

“I can see that,” Shiro said, arms resting on his thighs. Black leapt back onto the sofa and curled up beside him, watching the proceedings with a keen intelligence he only ever thought to associate with sapient life.

Except, well, he’d always known the Lions were more _sapient_ than people gave them credit for.

“How did it happen?” Shiro wondered. He idly rubbed Black’s head, smiling when it showed itself receptive to his petting.

“We don’t know,” Hunk said. “It just…happened.”

“And Red won’t let go of me,” Lance grumbled.

“Where is he?” Shiro said, glancing up at Lance half-expecting to see a cat perched on his shoulder.

Lance bent over, disappearing for a tic before he straightened and brandished a squirming bundle of brown fur at Shiro. “There are holes in my pants that weren’t there a varga ago,” he complained, “and it’s all Red’s fault.”

Red, his short legs free from Lance’s grasp, thrashed and reached for Shiro’s face. Black stared at him, and Red finally slipped away from Lance and pounced on it.

Black ignored Red’s efforts to engage it in play fighting, the smaller cat determinedly nipping at the black cat’s ears. Shiro chuckled at the sight, admiring Black’s patience, and glanced at Lance and Hunk.

“Entertaining as this is, what’re we going to do about it?” he asked them. “We can’t exactly fight the Galra with five house cats.”

“Well, for starters,” Hunk explained, “Allura and Coran thought we should confine them to a room, seeing as Red and Green have already made messes of Lance’s and Pidge’s stuff.”

“Where are Blue and Green then?” Shiro said.

“Allura’s still trying to catch Blue,” said Lance. “She found the mice pretty quickly.” He chuckled, but when Hunk shot him a dirty look, he frowned and amended, “And that _really_ sucks.”

“Pidge is still looking for Green,” Hunk then said. “She found her, but as it turns out, Green is really good at hide-and-seek even without a cloaking device.”

“You’d think Pidge would be small enough to chase after her,” Lance quipped. “I’ve found her in the vents often enough.”

“The vents?” said Shiro.

“Yeah,” Lance said with a nod. “How else would Red have gotten to my room from his hangar?” He glared at the cat in question, who now contented himself by batting at Black’s steadily flicking tail.

Before Shiro or Hunk could answer him, the door opened again, admitting Pidge. She looked exhausted, slouching and hair untidier than usual, with a white cat sitting on her shoulder and a coil of copper wire in her hand, except for a strand that stuck up, the cat clutching it between its front paws.

“Oh, good,” Pidge said, voice heavy with irony, “everyone else is here.”

“Except Allura,” Lance pointed out.

Pidge glanced around the room, shrugged, and slumped onto the sofa near Shiro. Green jumped off her shoulder, approaching Black and sniffing at it curiously, and Pidge said, “Someone lock the door before she gets away again.”

Hunk did as she requested, and they all sat around, waiting for Coran, Allura, and Blue. Green paced around the room, meowing every time she reached a corner and returning to stare up at Pidge reproachfully, while Red continued to alternate between antagonizing Black - who was patient enough for it - and Lance - who was not.

Yellow simply slept in Hunk’s lap, opening a single orange eye every dobosh or so before closing it again.

Finally, the door opened again, Allura and Coran walking in. All four mice sat on Coran’s shoulders rather than Allura’s, while Blue, whom Allura clutched tightly, watched their every twitch of a whisker.

“All right,” Allura said, her tone brisk as she faced everyone else. “This situation is unprecedented and quite dangerous, all things considered.” She sighed but continued, “Coran’s already contacted the Akkians, so Hunk, your meeting with them has been postponed.”

“I could still take a pod?” Hunk said hopefully.

“Better to take your Lion,” Allura said. “And for now, we’ll confine the Lions to this room while we figure out what happened to them and how to turn them back.” She held Blue in front of her, gaze stern, and told her, “You are _not_ eating my mice.”

Blue meowed, though Shiro couldn’t tell if it was agreement or argument.

“Anyway, Pidge,” Allura said once she clutched Blue to her chest again, “check the surveillance of the hangars and find out when this happened, and we’ll consider from there.”

“Sure thing, Princess,” Pidge said, straightening from her spot slouched on the sofa.

“Well, that’s all for now,” she said, setting Blue down on the floor. “Now I need to inform our allies that we’re…temporarily out of commission.” She scowled, nostrils flaring in irritation, and swept out of the room with Coran just ahead of her.

Blue tried to follow but was quickly rebuffed by the door closing on her. She stared up at it, meowing beseechingly even when Green approached and attempted to engage her in play.

Shiro glanced at Black then rubbed his face; everyone else in the room groaned, already anticipating the trouble the cats would give them - even without discussing that their best weapons for an ongoing war had transformed from huge, ferocious machines to small, cuddly fur balls.

* * *

It didn’t take long to pinpoint the exact time that the Lions transformed from beastly machines to squishy cats thanks to Hunk and Lance - once the former dragged him along - helping Pidge comb through hangar surveillance. And between the three of them, they also quickly learned that all five Lions _changed_ at the exact same time. 

(They worked in Pidge’s room; the Green Lion’s hangar was just to _eerie_ without the Green Lion herself sleeping inside.)

“That’s…it?” Lance said, peering at the screen over Pidge’s shoulder as they watched the video of the Green Lion shrinking _again_. “They just…got small and furry?” He glanced between Pidge and Hunk.

Pidge frowned at the screen. “That’s what it looks like,” she said, “but I’m sure there’s more to it.”

“Well, where are we now?” Hunk wondered. “Maybe when it happened we were passing through some weird star system that turns transdimensional ships into cats.”

Pidge, intrigued by the idea, navigated to the Castle’s log, searching it for the same time as the Lions’ transformation, but before she could delve too deep into it, a metallic clang reverberated from the vent near the ceiling and into her room. She glanced up, eyes wide, and watched with horror as a ball of white fell through the unbolted door.

“We’ve been had!” Lance exclaimed, as Green prowled towards them.

“They escaped?” Hunk said.

Pidge groaned, resting her forehead on the desk, pretending like she didn’t hear Green knocking things aside and jumping at every twitch of fabric and wire inside. Lance yelped, likely because Green turned her torment onto him, and that was amusing enough that she picked her head up, prepared to laugh, at least until she noticed Green crouching, her eyes fixed on…her pets.

“Oh, no you don’t!” Pidge shot out of her chair and lunged for Green, right before she pounced, paws shooting out to grab at the blue trash caterpillar. Its facial markings flashed in alarm, its flight too slow to carry it away from the grasp of a hunting feline.

“Lance, save him!” Pidge said, shouting to the closest person.

Lance reached Green right as she pressed the trash caterpillar to the floor. He pulled her off, an indignant growl escaping her throat, and the blue caterpillar was allowed to escape.

Pidge exhaled in relief, watching as both the blue and green ones evaded the predator by flying as high as the ceiling. But Green still stared up at them, her tail thrashing even as Lance kept a firm hold on her.

“Well, that was dramatic,” Hunk observed.

“Yeah, Pidge, your Lion - I mean, _cat_ is a lot like you,” Lance said, nodding towards the vent.

“Right,” Pidge said, tone dripping with sarcasm, “because I’m _sure_ Red wouldn’t look for a chance to escape either.”

Lance rolled his eyes, but then he frowned and said, “I don’t get it. They’re usually…not like _this_.” He gestured with Green.

Pidge took _her_ cat from him, letting her hop up to perch onto her shoulder since she seemed to prefer that to being carried. “Like what?” she asked.

“Like…like bad kittens,” Lance explained. “Why would Red _normally_ get into my yarn? He’s a giant robot cat, not a _kitten_.”

Hunk snickered, but when Pidge and Lance shot him a look, he raised his hands and said, “Hey, Yellow’s been on his best behavior.”

“They don’t look like _kittens_ though,” Pidge pointed out, reaching up and tapping Green’s little pink nose. She grinned when Green licked her fingertip and continued, “They look like _adult_ cats.”

“But act like kittens,” Lance said.

“Except maybe Black and Yellow,” Hunk added with a nod.

Lance glanced between Pidge and Hunk, crossing his arms, and for some reason his sudden smirk had Pidge’s stomach fill with dread. “Maybe they’re reflecting their Paladins’ personalities.”

“…explain,” Hunk said, raising an eyebrow at him.

“Well, Green is getting into the vents, like Pidge.”

“It was _one time_ ,” Pidge grumbled.

“Black is stoic and mature like Shiro,” Lance continued as if he hadn’t heard Pidge, “and Red is just…everywhere like Keith!”

“That makes no sense,” Hunk said. “How is Keith _everywhere_?”

“He’s here in the Castle, he’s with the Blade, he was at the crash site on Earth…” Lance waved a dismissive hand. “You know, everywhere.”

Pidge and Hunk gaped at him, and he said, “You have a weird definition of ‘everywhere’.”

“Yeah, well, I’d like to see you come up with a better explanation for why our Lions are the way they are,” Lance retorted.

“We’re trying!” Hunk said.

Pidge sighed, but Green hopping down from her shoulder interrupted the budding argument. She landed lightly on all four feet, and before anyone could react, Pidge’s bedroom door slid open, Green escaping through it.

“Wait, Green—” Green darted away down the hall, and the three of them gave chase. But after she disappeared around another corner, Pidge doubled over, panting. “Quiznak.”

“Well,” Hunk said once he’d caught his breath, “this is officially worse than herding cats.”

* * *

Black sat in Allura’s path as she walked towards the bridge.

Allura crossed her arms, facing down the _cat_ while the mice huddled together on her shoulder (though, so far, only Blue had shown interest in them). “And how did you get out?” she asked Black. 

It only blinked slowly at her.

Allura sighed and approached the cat, frowning in surprise when it didn’t move for her, didn’t even twitch so much as an ear. Only the tip of its tail flicked, and Allura’s skin crawled with discomfort under its sharp gaze.

She walked around Black and through the entrance to the bridge, finding Coran at his terminal. “Did Pidge tell you when the Lions transformed?” she asked him.

“She sent me the information, Princess,” Coran informed her. “It was five vargas, fifteen doboshes, and six tics ago.” He blinked. “Seven tics now.”

“Yes, and?” Allura said before Coran could tell her _eight tics_. “Is there any indication of how this happened and how we can change them back?”

“Well, it seems that something interrupted Number Five’s progress,” Coran said, “but at the time the Lions turned into those delightful yet menacing creatures, the Castle was passing through the Sihri System.”

Allura stared at him. “Oh,” she said, heart sinking. “That’s…not good at all. Why didn’t we avoid it?”

Coran twirled the end of his mustache around a finger. “Seeing as we cannot constantly use the teledav, and the areas immediately _beyond_ the Sihri System are occupied by Galra forces, it was less risky traveling through it.”

Allura glanced at the mice perched on her shoulder and confessed, “Now I’m impressed nothing _worse_ happened.” She tapped a finger against her thigh, thoughtful. “Would passing back through fix anything?”

“Considering the very _nature_ of the Sihri System is random chance and improbability…we may find the mice turned into giant robot mice instead!” Coran laughed, then said, “Oh, do you think we could form Voltron from mice rather than Lions?”

Allura narrowed her eyes at him, and he cleared his throat and said, “Perhaps that joke was in bad taste, Princess.”

“Yes, perhaps,” Allura agreed, although she allowed herself a small smile. “Thank you, Coran; at least now we have _some_ of an answer.” She turned to leave. “I think I shall go check on the Lions, make sure they haven’t all escaped.”

“Ah, yes, that would be a good idea,” Coran said.

And no sooner was Allura out of the bridge than a brown blur sprinted across her path. “ _Red_ ,” she sighed, right before Blue appeared, giving chase, and the mice buried themselves in her hair.

* * *

Keith smiled when the Castle of Lions came into view. Something warm, something like _home_ , filled his chest, and he opened a comm link to the bridge.

“Yes, hello?” Coran’s voice said.

Keith grinned. “Hi, Coran,” he said. “I’m here on behalf of the Blade, like we agreed? Can you open a bay door for me to park my pod?”

“Uh, no, sorry!” Coran said cheerfully. “We’re not currently accepting visitors in the Castle, so come back another time! Let’s say…in a few vargas. Please deliver Princess Allura’s apologies to Kolivan."

Keith blinked, surprised and disappointed. “But it’s me, Keith,” he said.

“Oh, Number Four!” Coran said. “In that case, yes, perhaps another pair of hands is just what we need.”

“Uh…with what?” Keith asked, but without responding, Coran cut the link. He frowned, uncertain, but gratefully steered his pod through the bay doors once they opened. After landing the pod and waiting for the doors to shut, Keith unstrapped himself from his seat and walked out, waving when he spotted Shiro there to greet him.

“Hey, Shiro!” he said, smiling in relief that something - some _one_ \- normal stood in front of him. But then he almost tripped over something else, glancing down in surprise at a black cat, of all things. “Where did you find a cat?”

Shiro smiled but wasted no time in hugging him. Keith gladly returned the embrace, but when Shiro pulled back, he pressed, “Really, where did the cat come from?”

Shiro scratched the back of his neck and admitted, “Ah, well, that’s the Black Lion.”

Keith laughed. “No, really.”

Shiro shrugged, nodding towards the cat that hadn’t budged from where it sat, only turning its head to stare at Keith with odd violet eyes.

“Oh…” Keith said. “That’s…what? How did that happen?”

“Your guess is as good as mine,” Shiro said. “According to Coran, the Castle passed through a star system that does weird ‘improbable’ things to machinery, but everything else is fine so far.”

“Huh.” Keith crouched and reached out towards the cat that was apparently the Black Lion, but it only watched him, as unimpressed as it was before he awakened it. “Wait,” he said, glancing up at Shiro, “did this happen to _all_ the Lions?” 

* * *

Lance found Green in Kaltenecker’s pasture.

Kaltenecker herself looked entirely unbothered by the presence of a cat that kept jumping and trying to catch her swaying tail, but Lance couldn’t help being impressed with her patience and Green’s tenacity.

He, Pidge, and Hunk split up some doboshes ago once they ascertained that _all_ five cats escaped the lounge, and now Lance had located one…and it wasn’t even _his_.

He crossed his arms, standing beside Kaltenecker and watching with some amusement as Green lay on her back, batting at the end of the cow’s tail. “I don’t see how that’s fun,” he told her.

Green, predictably, ignored him; she only seemed to react to Pidge, if at all.

“Lance!”

He spun around, smiling when he spotted Pidge and Hunk approaching him. “Hey,” he greeted them. “I found your Lion, Pidge; she’s been…chasing tail.”

Pidge glanced from him to the white cat on the ground. “So she is,” she said. “And Hunk found Yellow.”

Now that Lance looked, Hunk carried a big orange bundle in his arms. “Where did you find him?”

Hunk grinned, scratching behind his cat’s ear, and said, “Oh, he was in the kitchen napping under a chair.”

“What about Red, Blue, and Black?”

Pidge shook her head and said, “We don’t know where they are, but that doesn’t mean none of the others found them.”

Before Lance could respond to that, a new voice called from the pasture entrance. “Pidge!” Allura said, striding towards them with Blue on her shoulders but the mice out of sight. “Did Coran tell you about why the Lions are the way they are?”

“No,” Pidge said, looking at her. “What happened?”

“We passed through the Sihri System,” Allura explained. Blue jumped down off her shoulder, and she visibly sagged as a mouse poked its head out of her hair. “Sihr, the star at its center, emits an odd energy that randomly causes machinery to…do strange things.”

“Like turning the Lions of Voltron into house cats?” Hunk said.

“Yes,” Allura said, then blinked. “Wait, you keep these things in your home on Earth?”

“Well, yeah,” Lance said. He pointed towards where Green now looked to be chasing her own shadow through the thick grass. “They’re pets on Earth, and pretty harmless.”

The mouse now on Allura’s shoulder squeaked indignantly, and even Allura raised a skeptical eyebrow. “They _are_ quite cute, I suppose,” she conceded, “though they don’t strike me as appropriate pets.”

“Then what did Alteans keep as pets?” Pidge wondered.

Allura smiled, but was interrupted as soon as she opened her mouth to reply. She frowned, then turned, eyes lighting up when Keith - dressed in his Blade uniform - walked towards them, Shiro right behind him.

“Keith!” she greeted him. “You’re…here for a meeting.” She sighed and said, “Oh, I’m sorry. This wasn’t supposed to happen.”

“I figured,” Keith said, eyes flitting from Blue, to Yellow still in Hunk’s arms, to Green. “Hey,” he said to the rest of them, raising a hand.

Pidge didn’t hesitate to throw herself at him, arms around his neck as she pulled him into a hug. He laughed and returned it, grinning even wider when Hunk joined in, dropping Yellow - who landed on his feet, quite nimble for a large cat - in favor of hugging Keith and Pidge.

Lance rolled his eyes, but couldn’t help smiling as he wrapped his arms around all three of them. “You came just in time to help us clean up this mess, Keith,” he said.

“Yeah, Lions turning into cats,” he said as they separated. “That’s pretty weird, but…are you feeding them?”

Hunk stared wide-eyed at him and said, “Oh, we didn’t even think about that.”

“What do cats eat?” Allura asked. “ _Other_ than mice, I might add.”

“Well…” Keith glanced towards Kaltenecker.

“Nope!” Lance quickly denied, spreading his arms. “We are _not_ slaughtering my cow—”

“ _Our_ cow,” Pidge hissed.

“—for cat food!”

Keith crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow at him. “I was going to suggest _milk_ , Lance.”

Lance blinked at him, then smiled sheepishly. “Oh, yeah, I knew that,” he said.

“Sure you did,” Pidge muttered.

* * *

 

Red wandered into the pasture while Lance was milking Kaltenecker, and Hunk watched with dread as he pounced on Keith’s feet.

“What?” Keith said, eyes widening when they fell on the small brown cat staring up at him with its jaws parted. “Oh, Red!”

Red chirped at him, but when Keith crouched to pet him, he darted away and chased Green, who responded by sprinting off and tackling Pidge’s dangling arm. Not long after, Blue joined their mock fight, and even Yellow engaged, but mostly by his bulk getting in their way.

Then the mice, thinking the cats were distracted, emerged from their hiding place in Allura’s hair.

Hunk watched their mistake unfold as they touched the ground, only for Blue’s head to snap around, her round eyes fixing on them. All three of the others, sensing her shift in focus, followed suit.

The mice scurried off, towards where Allura stood with Shiro at a distance from Kaltenecker, who lay between them. But the cats ran faster.

The mice slipped past Lance, who didn’t even blink at them, but then Blue barreled into the nearly full bucket of raw milk at his feet.

Lance yelped as the cats upended the bucket, milk spilling and soaking into their fur. Not even Lance was spared, his grumbling about the condition of his shoes audible when he pulled away from them.

Pidge burst into laughter, and even Hunk couldn’t help cracking a smile at the sight of four cats - once stoic sapient machines forged from a comet - meowing pitifully and dripping milk.

* * *

Keith walked into the bathroom with a squirming Red in his arms. Hunk already crouched by the tub, rinsing soap from Green’s white fur. Her eyes were closed, her tail flicking anxiously, but she seemed content to allow Hunk to do his worst.

Red, on the other hand, fought Keith’s grasp as if he knew what fate awaited him. His claws dug into the fabric of his Blade suit - though didn’t pierce it - but Keith held tight to him. “The sooner you calm down, the sooner it’ll be over,” he reassured Red.

Naturally, Red ignored him.

Hunk hummed, turning off the faucet so that Pidge could take Green and towel dry her while Lance waited with a blow drier. Yellow already sat nearby, eyes closed as he relaxed after his own blow drying session.

“I’m ready for Red,” Hunk told Keith, but before he could pass the annoyed cat to Hunk, he added, “You hold onto him while I soak him. Something tells me he’ll like a bath even less than Green and Yellow did.”

As if corroborating Hunk’s statement, Red hissed, but Keith nodded and gripped him tightly, pretending like the stickiness in his fur didn’t bother him.

Hunk turned the faucet back on, and together they managed to bathe Red, though not without some casualty - namely, getting a face full of sudsy water when he shook his fur out. Pidge laughed, but scowled when Red treated her to a shower of her own before she could start rubbing him with the towel.

Lance, _of course_ , had the easiest time with Red, who purred through the blow drying. “It’s the heat,” he guessed, but he flashed a smug grin in Keith’s direction.

Keith rolled his eyes, standing up so that he could retrieve Blue from Allura, though to his surprise Blue already stood expectantly in the bathroom doorway. “Uh…”

“Water is her element,” Lance pointed out. “She’ll like a bath.”

Sure enough, Blue hopped into the tub without prompting, batting at the faucet until Hunk turned the knob. “What a strange cat,” Keith observed.

“She’s the Guardian Spirit of Water,” Hunk said. “What else would you expect?”

Blue happily sat under the stream of water, even going so far as to meow a complaint when Hunk shut it off in favor of rubbing soap into her fur. “Look here, Blue,” he said, “water isn’t enough to get you perfectly clean.”

Blue still whined until water streamed over her again, and once Hunk washed all the soap from her fur, she refused to get out. Keith sighed and reached in for her, groaning when she sat on her belly, making it more difficult for him to get a good grip on her. But eventually his struggle against her ended, and Pidge bundled her up into a towel to dry.

Faced with four bathed cats, Keith asked, “So what now?”

Pidge frowned and said, “Now we figure out how to turn them back.”

* * *

Allura sat cross-legged in front of Black, whom she had once more come across sitting in her path. “Why are you like this?” she asked it without expecting an answer.

Black only blinked at her.

Allura glared at it and wondered, “Do _you_ have any ideas on how to transform you back?”

Black’s ear twitched, and it reached up with a hind paw to scratch behind it.

Hissing, Allura crossed her arms. “You’re as insufferable as you were after Shiro disappeared!” she accused it.

To her surprise, Black chirped at that, standing and stretching its legs before darting past Allura and down the hallway. She turned, following the cat with her eyes so long as it was in view.

“Well, that was odd,” Allura observed. She stood up, sighing, and went after Black. 

* * *

 

Some vargas after discovering the Lions as cats, they settled down. Green curled into Pidge’s side while she sat on the sofa in the lounge, idly stroking her soft white fur while she watched surveillance videos over and over again in the hope of finding some solution.

“What happens if we don’t find a way to change them back?” Lance asked from his spot lying on the other sofa, Red sleeping stretched out on his right arm.

“I don’t know,” Shiro said. He leaned against the wall behind the sofa Lance commandeered, frowning at his feet as he considered. “But hopefully we don’t have to worry about that.”

“Yeah,” Lance agreed.

Pidge glanced down at Green, watching the way her flank rose and fell. Somehow, the Lions seemed both more and less alive like this, their presence livelier in person but without weighing as heavily in their minds. In fact, as doboshes passed, Pidge sensed Green less and less…

“I don’t think it’s permanent,” Pidge mused aloud, and when Shiro and Lance glanced at her, she continued, “But I think it could _become_ permanent.”

Lance sat up, displacing Red. “How do you figure?”

“I…can’t feel Green as much as I could earlier,” she admitted. “Can you feel Red?” Her eyes darted to Shiro. “Or Black?”

Shiro and Lance exchanged a look, then turned back to her, both shaking their heads. “Not as strongly as before,” said Shiro.

Pidge sighed and rubbed her face with a sweaty hand. “Whatever it is, something tells me we have to find the solution _before_ the bond fades away completely. Otherwise, Voltron will be no more.”

* * *

“Just because the milk thing didn’t work out,” Hunk said to Yellow, who sat on the floor at his feet, “doesn’t mean you should be deprived of food.” He grabbed the goo dispensing hose, pointing the nozzle into a bowl and pouring some out before setting it on the floor. He grinned when Yellow sniffed at the goo to investigate, then lapped at it, a pleased purr rising from him.

“Oh, I hoped you’d like it,” Hunk said. “I mean, it’s kind of bland in taste - I still wish I’d been able to visit Akk - but it’s better than nothing, right?”

Yellow simply continued to eat, so Hunk probed along their bond, searching for something other than what his eyes showed him, only to find…nothing.

Or, well, not _nothing_ , but little enough that his stomach turned, worried. “Oh, quiznak,” he said. “That is _not_ good, is it?”

Yellow looked up at him and meowed, but before Hunk could decipher his tone, Allura walked into the kitchen, peering around with wide eyes. “Are you looking for something, Princess?” he asked her.

Allura flinched, her gaze falling on him. “Oh, Hunk!” she said. “Yes, I was looking for Black; I thought I saw it coming through here, though I guess—” She cut herself off, staring down at Yellow. “What are you feeding him?”

“Just goo,” Hunk said, shrugging. “I was also kind of mourning my lack of spices, which I would’ve gotten if I’d still gone to Akk.”

Allura nodded. “Yes, I’m sorry about that, Hunk,” she said, “but imagine how it would look to a member of the Coalition if a Paladin showed up without his Lion.”

“I get that,” Hunk admitted.

“Good,” Allura said with a brief smile. She turned back to the door, right as it slid open again and Pidge walked in.

“Hunk!” she called. “How’s your bond with Yellow?”

“It’s weakening,” he confessed, glancing between her and the cat still eating at his feet. “Yours with Green too?”

Pidge nodded, then glanced at Allura. “You said that this happened because of magic?”

Allura frowned. “No,” she said. “It was random chance based on improbability. The _strangest_ things happen in the Sihri System, you know.”

“So…magic,” said Pidge.

“Not exactly, no,” Allura grumbled.

“Whatever, close enough!” Pidge retorted. “But we need a solution, and fast before our bonds disappear completely. Do you think that we can find some…antidote? Magic isn’t exactly my area of expertise.”

Allura sighed and rubbed her face. “I don’t kn—” Then her eyes widened in some realization, and she looked at Hunk. “You may get what you’d like after all, Hunk.” She pressed a finger to her earring and said, “Coran, please prepare a pod. It looks like we’ll be visiting the Akkians after all.”

* * *

One varga, five doboshes, and three tics later found Allura understanding why Coran had navigated the Castle through a system as unpredictable as the Sihri. A small green pod giving off a pungent odor sat in Hunk’s hand, a gift from the Akkians, who, without prompting, assured them it mitigated the effects of the star Sihr.

“Like garlic for vampires,” Hunk observed.

That, Allura didn’t understand, but she still watched eagerly as Hunk ground the pod in a mortar and split the powder into five spoonfuls.

“I saved a bit,” he added, “just in case feeding it to the cats doesn’t work.”

“How do we get them back to the hangars?” Keith said, frowning at the green powder.

“Never mind that,” Lance said. “How the quiznak do we force feed a cat?”

Hunk gestured towards the goo machine. “Yellow liked the goo enough,” he said, “so we can spike five portions of it, and to lure the cats to their hangars, well, it depends on the cat, doesn’t it?”

Lance and Keith exchanged a glance, and Allura sighed and told her mice, “I’m afraid I must ask you for a favor.”

* * *

Red chased after Lance while he wandered towards his hangar, a length of yarn with a bundle of copper wire borrowed from Pidge tied to the end. He growled every time he attempted to pounce, but Lance kept tugging the bait just out of reach as they ventured further towards the hangar. 

Lance didn’t even pause at the entrance, running in towards the bowl of goo already lying in wait in the center. He dangled the copper wire over it, and when Red approached, the odor from the crushed pod lacing the goo distracted him.

He bent his head down, and Lance held his breath as Red suspiciously licked at it.

Something like delight traveled across their dwindling bond, and Lance smiled in relief while Red tucked into his meal. He resisted the urge to stroke his brown fur - and distract him from the very important task of eating - and instead withdrew to watch and wait.

Red polished off everything in the bowl, then crouched on the floor, front paws before him. He blinked slowly at Lance, a purr rumbling powerfully enough that he felt his contentment - so rare for the finicky Red Lion - as if it was his own.

Lance laid down on the floor, smiling. “You’re not too bad like this,” he admitted, “and it’s nice having a pet that reminds me of Earth and home, but…we need you to be a Lion again.”

A quiet acceptance and a firm pride filled Lance’s mind, and Red’s eyes flashed yellow.

**Author's Note:**

> 'sihr' is basically 'magic'/'sorcery' in Arabic because yeah, i'm creative like that *finger guns*
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> ~~one day i'll come back and proofread this~~
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> hope you liked it!! comments are love <3


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